Finding Joy in Suffering. Quite a title right? Usually you wouldn’t think that joy and suffering would exist together. But in my life, they have. I’ve experienced great suffering and loss early on in my life, and many have asked me how I continue to put a smile on my face having lived through what I have. Ever since I was a kid, my response has been, “I don’t know, it’s because of Jesus.” For a while, I couldn’t understand why I had joy in my heart after my mother died. But I knew that God was providing joy in ways that I couldn’t begin to explain. Even now, so many years later, I can still say that I have joy in my seasons of suffering.
My story has been shaped by the loss of two of my parents. My birth mother died after a long battle with cancer when I was 12, and my adopted dad died from a fatal car accident when I was 25. I’ve suffered from depression for many years, and struggled with suicide and self-harm. I’ve struggled with my mental health, a number of insecurities, and ongoing fears of rejection and abandonment. You name it, I, or someone I know, has struggled and suffered through something. I bet you have suffered in some way, shape, or form at least once in your life. Everyone suffers. No matter how small or large, insignificant or grand, you have suffered.
This book may not teach you how to avoid suffering, because we can’t avoid suffering. But it will teach you how to walk through it, and how to walk alongside someone else through theirs. Suffering is an unfortunate part of this world, and we will all experience some kind of suffering. But in order to do life on this earth (and find the joy in it), we need to first acknowledge and accept our suffering, and then get to know the One who suffered more than all of us. Jesus. And only then, will we be able to find a reason to have joy in the midst of our suffering.